3 Reasons to Communicate Your Brand Through Built Space - Lakewood Construction

3 Reasons to Communicate Your Brand Through Built Space

Megan Murray, Megan Murray Interiors 

In today’s fast paced and crowded business world, your company’s brand can be the differentiating factor between you and your competition. Brand can communicate everything about your company from trust to culture and more. Now, the question as a business owner is how do you take your company’s brand and translate that through your space…and why does it matter?

Let’s dive into a few of the reasons why intentionally conveying your company’s brand through your built space can be instrumental in business success.

1. Attract New Talent

The last two years or so have impacted our economy in more ways than one. Yes, I am talking about our “post-COVID world”. More specifically, the hiring crisis that is plaguing our workforce, also known as the “Great Resignation”. Your company now needs to focus on not only selling your brand to potential clients, but also potential employees, as they are coming at a premium.

As an employer you should utilize any and every selling point you can to help with recruitment and retention, one of those being your space. Even if your business is still incorporating working from home into the work week, it is somewhat rare that an employee would never come to the office, even if just a few times a month or throughout the year. The space in which those in-person interactions take place matters, especially when striving to attract top talent to your company.

Potential employees can tell what they need to know about your company’s culture, how you value your employees, employee benefits, and if your company is the right fit for them just by touring the office. For example, what kind of amenities are available in the space? Is there a coffee bar available to employees? What type of workstations do you provide? Are there dedicated workstations or is the footprint geared towards free address? These types of features will communicate to a potential candidate whether employees will have autonomy when picking where to work or meet with others when at the office. Everything that the eye can see sends a message about your company’s brand.

2. Show What Your Company Stands For

Utilizing brand through imagery and color in a built environment is a great way to show clients, not just tell them, what your company stands for. Think about it like walking the walk not just talking talk. Is your brand fun, serious, professional, to be trusted, welcoming, and so on – whatever it is you want a client to know about your company can likely be seen or felt in a space.

You may use a bright palette of colors that helps the space feel bright and energetic. Maybe there are several sizes of conference spaces that are not only enclosed, but maybe open, with various furniture applications because you want to convey that your company is collaborative and adaptable. These elements will communicate to a customer that you have a collaborative and up-and-coming workforce that is attracting new and talented employees to your team.

If your company is looking for a more traditional and serious atmosphere, then wood, darker colors, and more enclosed spaces to meet can help create that for you. If you are a professional services company that wants to convey trust, strength, and longevity, these elements could be just what you need. Just like with a home speaks to the people who live there, the color palette, or finishing materials you select will say a lot about your company.

3. Make Everyone Feel Welcome

If you are a company that will have clients visiting your spaces, you want to make sure everyone feels welcome in the space. No matter what your brand is, or what style your space may be, feeling welcome in a space is important. If a space has some of the elements mentioned in points one and two, you are well on your way to achieving that welcoming feeling.

Don’t just stop there though, think about the other details, details that make a space feel lived in. Think about a space that has plants throughout, artwork on the walls, books on shelves, pillows on sofas, task lighting, inviting conversation levels, and so on. Doesn’t that feel more like a space you would want to visit and stay a while? Now, think about spaces you have visited or seen online that felt empty, sterile, or even unfinished. Why did those spaces feel that way? It is likely that feeling was due to the absence of intentional details.

This level of design is often an afterthought, but these details can go a long way in making your space convey a welcoming feeling to those who work in or visit the space.

 

There are countless ways to show potential clients and employees what you want your brand to communicate, and the built space is a great way to do that. These spaces are some of the biggest investments that a company will make, so why not make that investment work for you and impact everyone who comes through your doors.